


The Thing Is...

by keepitdreamin



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Chowder isn't as innocent as he seems, Chowder-Centric, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, not in a sex way (at least not now)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 11:43:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6193819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepitdreamin/pseuds/keepitdreamin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The thing is... Chowder has known he’s liked guys since preschool.</p><p>In which Chowder grew up in the hella gay Bay Area and is a little frustrated that he's being talked to like an innocent sunflower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Thing Is...

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, I wanted a story where Chowder isn't as innocent/uninformed as he seems most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I love Chowder as a smol baby, just, I wanted to explore polyfrogs getting together another way.

The thing is... Chowder has known he’s liked guys since preschool. His mother still reminds him fondly of how he came home and said, in that serious 4 year old way, “I’m gonna marry Justin and we’re gonna play together _every_ _day_.”

He knows his teammates treat him like a kid most of the time, and yeah, he  _is_ the youngest, and he knows he gets excited easily and his braces make him look like a middle schooler. And, most of the time, he doesn’t mind. He likes when Bitty worries over him (generally he ends up with extra food and first dibs at pie) and when Jack ruffles his hair (which only happens when Chowder’s either half asleep in his breakfast or after a loss that he’s beating himself up over).

But he’s _not_ a kid. Not in this way at least. He’s _had_ boyfriends (and girlfriends) throughout school, and he’s as secure (if not more than) any of the upperclassmen players. Maybe he doesn’t talk about it, but that’s less “don’t want them to know” (because, really, he met Bitty on the tour, he _knows_ the team doesn’t care) and more “there’s so many ‘swawesome things happening!! Hockey and classes and hockey and pie and hockey and friends!!!” Finding a relationship has just not seemed important.

So that’s the thing. And that’s why Chowder is kind of mad right now (he _hates_ being mad off the ice, doesn’t see the point most of the time) as he listens to Nursey and Dex explain how they’ve been… trying a relationship out (like Chowder didn’t know already, come _on_ , they’re about as subtle as a pile of bricks) and how they want to try a relationship with him as well.

That’s not what makes him mad. _That_ part absolutely thrills him because they’re his best friends and his teammates and he loves them and they are both _really_ hot. So it’s not their words but their  _tone_ that’s really getting to him. They’re talking all gently, like they don’t want to freak him out with all the gayness or polyamory (if Chowder was the kind of person to roll his eyes while someone else was speaking, he would, _so hard,_ because they still haven’t actually even _said_ the word yet).

For Sharks' sake, he grew up in the Bay Area! He was in San Francisco, dubbed ‘the city that practically invented gay’ by its own travel association, pretty much every other week. He’s _been_ to Pride, almost every year since he was 4, when he rode on his uncle’s shoulder and waved a little rainbow flag and smiled at absolutely everything (his mother has a picture of it framed in their front hall). Nursey, he knows, had only really figured himself out like the year before Samwell, and Dex is his first actual boyfriend. And Dex… well Dex still has a Republican sticker on his laptop. Chowder’s almost positive he’s never even let himself consider not being 100% straight _(oh yeah, he still needs to ask about how they identify)_ till this year, and he knows for a fact that Nursey is his first _anything_.

Which means that Chowder is definitely the most experienced out of all of them. And _as_ the most experienced (and as their friend, seriously, did they think he would _run_ when they told him they liked him romantically? Do they know him at all?), he doesn’t really appreciate being treated like a precious, innocent sunflower.

Then they’re looking at him expectantly, and it’s _finally_ Chowder’s turn to speak. There’s a lecture on the tip of his tongue about assumptions and treating him like an adult, they’re the _same_ age for Sharks' sake, but then he really takes in how Nursey looks decidedly _un_ chill and Dex like he might just bolt any second. So Chowder holds his tongue (for now) and smiles his biggest, brightest, happiest smile, the one usually reserved for shutouts and acing exams. “Guys, I like you both too!” They both relax immediately and Chowder continues, bouncing in excitement, “This is so ‘swawesome!” Nursey huffs out a laugh, and Dex smiles, one of those rare, _real_ ones where his eyes crinkle up slightly at the edges.

 _Yeah_ , Chowder thinks later, when they’ve wound up on the couch, Nursey and Dex pressing against each other’s sides and Chowder sprawling over them, _we can talk about our history later_.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not really sure how I feel about this, but it's the first thing I've actually finished writing in a while and polyfrogs is my newest obsession and there's not nearly enough fic for them.
> 
> I've already started working on a prequel focusing pretty heavily on Dex and his struggle to acknowledge and work through all the feelings he's been repressing, and if I finish that, then there will almost definitely be a Nursey companion piece and possibly a sequel. Not to mention the entirely unrelated polyfrogs WIP I started last week... Is it obvious that I am absolute trash for this pairing?
> 
> Also "for Sharks' sake" is Chowder's personal way of censoring "for fucks sake" (even inside his own head). IDk I thought it was funny.


End file.
